VimCasts.org

Peer to Peer is a new project of mine. I’m producing a series of long form videos where you can watch how experts solve tech problems. The first video is now available: Counting Tree Nodes, featuring Tom Stuart.

I’ve taught my Core Vim Class to more than 600 people online and in person. Now, for the first time, I’m making available the core learning resources – the VimDojo and 10 videos – for purchase. The Core Vim Course allows you to study Vim at your own pace, in your own time.

Today I’m rolling out some major enhancements to the Vimcasts.org website. I’ve been working on this project with Hannah Adcock since January. If you’re reading this via RSS, why not click through to the new homepage and check it out?

In the not-too-distant future, you can expect to see a revised design for Vimcasts.org. The most significant enhancements will be the addition of tags, site search, and a responsive design for smaller screens. Hannah Adcock, from contentedstrategy.com, has been helping me out by analysing user feedback, as well as data from Google Analytics.

Vimcasts was launched four years ago, in January 2010. I anticipated making only a dozen screencasts, but there are now over 50, as well as a blog. I’m going to make some changes so you can find what you’re looking for more easily. I’d appreciate your help! Please fill out this survey and I’ll take your feedback on board.

Gittip is a way to give weekly cash gifts to people whose work inspires you. If you’d like to support the people who help make Vim awesome, why not sign up and join the Vim community? (We need 13 more members to hit the 150 threshold.) I’ve set up a weekly gift for Tim Pope, whose Vim plugins I use every day.

I’d like to thank everyone who responded to my recent survey about supporting Vimcasts via a subscription model. I’ve taken your feedback on board and have decided to keep producing free Vimcasts. I can cover this site’s running costs and support myself by teaching Vim classes and producing longer video tutorials to sell.

I’ve just published episode 50 of Vimcasts. That feels like a significant milestone and a good time to consider the question: what’s next?

Yesterday was the world premiere of my Vimcasts Masterclass Online. It went great! Encouraged by it’s success, I’m planning to make this a regular occurrence. Watch out for more dates in the new year.

You’ve already worked your way through the Vimtutor, right? I’ve prepared a series of lessons that follow a similar format: plain text files containing simple problems, with instructions on how to complete them. The tasks are carefully designed to demonstrate tips and tricks that will boost your productivity. We’ll work through them as a class, but you can take them at your own pace.

Fans of the Plex media center will be happy to know that there is now a Vimcasts plugin, available from the Plex online app store. It was built by Ches Martin, who was inspired when he saw that there was a Vimcasts plugin for Boxee. So now you can get your fix of Vimcasts straight from your media center. Thanks Ches!

I am considering writing a book on Vim. By filling out this survey, you can help me to gauge interest and target the book at the right level.

Thanks, Drew

A number of people have contacted me to say that they would love to leave a tip, but object to using PayPal - the only method I provided for making donations. I had never heard of Flattr until recently, but a few people have requested that I integrate it into Vimcasts.org. I’ve always liked the idea of micro payments, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Boxee allows you to watch movies, TV shows and clips from the Internet on your TV. Ever since Vimcasts launched, people have been saying “get it added to boxee”. Thanks to Clayton Parker I am happy to announce that there is now a Vimcasts app for Boxee.

Vimcasts.org now has it’s own short form URLs. You can link to each episode by number, using the form /e/10 to link to episode 10. You can also link to the episodes archive with the trailing path /e/a.